The greatest thing youll ever learn
by Corcalamus
Summary: Draco Malfoy reflects on the memories he has of a young muggle girl he fell in love with once...


Ficlet title: Alexandria Dee  
  
Author: Jane McStay  
  
Summary: Draco Malfoy reflects on the love of his life, Alexandria Dee. Sad, sappy, get the tissues.  
  
Word Count: 2,238  
  
A/N: Just a little ficlet that I had the idea for whilst typing out my English essay. It is alleviating the stress, I can tell you.  
  
Alexandria Dee  
  
In my mind's eye I see her, as she was when all was well with the world. She lived in the village near our house. I see her as I saw her that very first time. I feel the same as I did then for her. My heart wept because of her beauty.  
  
She stood in the center of the village, with her father who was a local farmer. He brought his things into the local market on a Sunday, and that's when I went into the village to browse and see if there was anything worth having.  
  
She was at the stall in the center of the village when her father went to get something he had clearly forgotten, I never did find out what he forgot.  
  
I remember how her hair was swept back into a neat plait, and how she picked at the loose stitching on the cuff of her blouse. Her hair shone wonderfully in the summer sun and brought out the blue of her wonderfully stormy eyes. So very like my own, yet full of a warmth I could never possess.  
  
How I wonder where I got the courage to go speak to her. She was standing serving a woman and she looked so confident, so at ease. I stood and looked at her and smiled. She however didn't return my smile. She looked at me and scowled, even I would have been hard pressed to find a scowl like the one she gave me. I did not hide my confusion until she sighed and looked straight at me.  
  
She placed the fruit she was weighing down and said. "You Malfoy's are all the same. You expect the world to revolve around you and it doesn't."  
  
I was rather taken aback as I did not expect a Muggle girl to know about my family. I this time failed again to hide my emotion of surprise. She mumbled under her breath, "bloody wizards".  
  
She then looked at me again. "Don't think you'll get anywhere with me, Malfoy my father has warned me about you, you hate our kind, the Muggles."  
  
"And how does your father know about this?" I asked again trying to hide my emotion and failing miserably. My excuse to this day is that I was so enthralled by her beauty I could not think straight. She sighed. "My father is a wizard but lives a Muggle existence with my mother and I because I am a squib. He warned me about you, your father is a Death Eater!"  
  
I must say I was stunned by her knowledge and I admired the frankness of her statement. I felt, for the first time, a stab of guilt; I felt ashamed of who I was. I felt wrong, I never thought I would say it, but I was ashamed of being a Malfoy at that moment in time. I stood and still I stared. She told me to go and eventually I did.  
  
The next week I returned with a mind of telling her exactly what I thought and that she was rude and shouldn't tar us all with the same brush.  
  
I, of course knew that she was right.  
  
So the second time I saw her, she was again in the market. She was dressed differently this time. She was wearing a short skirt and a vest top. She looked stunning.  
  
I walked over to her, as she wasn't tending the stall. I stood behind her and I asked, "Remember me?"  
  
She turned 'round, and again that scowl. "Malfoy. I thought I got rid of you last week! One rejection not enough for you?"  
  
Ouch. I thought. She had guts for a Muggle. She was so stunningly beautiful though I don't think I would have cared if I found out that she was a werewolf. Well, okay maybe that's taking it a bit far, but she was stunning.  
  
I furrowed my brow and shook my head and I asked her a simple question.  
  
"Why don't we start with, 'Hi, my name is Draco, and you are?'" She looked at me suspiciously and she relented. "I'm Alexandra, people generally just call me Alex or Dee as my second name is Dee."  
  
I nodded. "Draco will do just fine. Now that we have that out of the way, please tell me about yourself."  
  
Having broken the ice, it only got better. We walked around the village and had a laugh. I found out that she was studying at school to become a doctor. She had settled on calling me Draco and I had begun with her proper name Alexandria until she cuffed me over the back of the head and insisted upon Alex, so to annoy her I stuck with Dee.  
  
She said I was infuriating, and I cocked my head to the side and kissed her.  
  
She didn't find that infuriating.  
  
That was my first date with Alex.  
  
I liked her a lot. I explained my situation to her, told her about my father and about Hogwarts. Told her many things I never told anyone in my life.  
  
I told her about Voldemort's downfall and how I hoped he'd never return and how I secretly admired the Muggle born witch in my year called Hermione. She listened patiently. Of course this was the summer just before fourth year.  
  
We went to the cinema and saw a film called "Moulin Rouge" Once I was used to the way the pictures moved I enjoyed it so much.  
  
We went and saw that movie six, maybe seven times. I adored it. Such a sad movie. I am not spoiling the movie for you if I tell you this as he tells you in the first scenes what will happen. Who will die.  
  
We had fun those two months.  
  
When I had to leave, she was heartbroken. I swore I'd keep in touch and I did. I wrote to her most days and she wrote back. I went to her house at Christmas and met her mother and father. Her mother was just as pretty as Alex.  
  
She had a nice name as well, Tia Dee. Her father was named Michael Duffy and he had a thick Irish accent. He had completely lost touch with the magical world and was bowled over when I told him that Ireland had just won this year's Quidditch world cup and that they had re-instated the tri- wizard competition at Hogwarts.  
  
It was that holiday that Dee and I made love.  
  
She was very nervous, she said she was "Virgin Sexy". Some sort of Muggle song. She was afraid it would hurt. But she trusted me too much and knew I'd be careful not to hurt her.  
  
It was then that I knew there was no going back. She and I were in love and only death would ever part us.  
  
So the months flew past and I was thoroughly looking forward to summer to see Alex again.  
  
Then it all went wrong.  
  
Voldemort returned.  
  
I was in the crowd when I heard the news. Everyone expected me to jump for joy and laugh at Cedric's death. In truth I actually had quite liked Cedric, he was always polite to me and never badmouthed my family. I respected that. When I heard my first thought was to go to the owlery and mail Alex and her family and get them as far away from Malfoy Manor as possible as my father told me once that Lord Voldemort used the Manor a lot for his meetings.  
  
I owled her and the next morning I sat not listening to a word that was said only that Harry Potter was in the hospital wing and he was in essence alive and as Dumbledore put it 'as well as could be expected'.  
  
Three days later I got an owl back from Alex. She told me that her father was selling up and moving as soon as the paperwork was in order. She begged me to go with them. She knew what my role would be in this new war. She desperately wanted to help me and I so wanted to go, to be with her and to be happy. I had come to realize over the months that I loved the girl with all my heart.  
  
But this stopped me.  
  
I knew as long as I was with her she would not be safe.  
  
Her father would be able to take them somewhere safe and if I was with them, my father would look for me. Also I needed to finish my education.  
  
So I told her no, and told her why. She understood of course but still begged me.  
  
I went home for the summer and I had already owled her explaining I couldn't see her as it was too risky if my father found out.  
  
It was going fine. I thought she was safe until one stormy July eve.  
  
She came to the Manor.  
  
And who should be there?  
  
Voldemort was not impressed with one of his faithful followers' only son falling in love with a Muggle.  
  
He brought her in and she was terrified. I held her in my arms as Voldemort shouted at my father.  
  
I told her never to come here it was too dangerous.  
  
Yet still she came.  
  
I told her of the consequences should she get caught would be death.  
  
Still she came.  
  
She stood with me and Voldemort turned to us.  
  
"Kill her boy."  
  
I stood defiantly. "No"  
  
"KILL HER!"  
  
Still I shook my head.  
  
Voldemort looked at Lucius and he grabbed me from her and left Alex standing in the center of the room. She looked at Voldemort straight in the eye.  
  
And she laughed.  
  
Even in such a situation she found the courage to laugh and the ability to look on the bright side of things.  
  
I loved her all the more for it.  
  
He cast Cruccio on her and I turned my head away. Voldemort saw this and he stopped and held my head up to look at her. He ordered Lucius to hold me like that.  
  
"You will watch." he said.  
  
I saw the conflict in my father. He wanted to please Lord Voldemort yet at the same time he knew this girl didn't deserve this.  
  
Again he cast the curse and again, and again.  
  
I lost count of the number of times. He finally stopped and he looked at me.  
  
"You were the one that caused her the pain, you could have killed her and been done with it."  
  
Tears fell from my eyes and he looked at Lucius. "She is to be dead when I return."  
  
When he left my father let go of me and watched as I fell to Alex's side. I held up her head and wiped the strands of hair from her face.  
  
"Dee? Dee, please wake up. I need you to wake up. Don't die on me."  
  
Her eyelids flicked open. "Draco?" I answered. "Yeah, Dee."  
  
"It hurts."  
  
"I know hon, I know."  
  
I held her still.  
  
"If she is alive when he returns he will do the same thing Draco you know that."  
  
I nodded. I knew it was either death or pain for her. She looked at me and she smiled. she actually smiled knowing death was staring her in the face.  
  
"I understand. Will it hurt?.."  
  
I shook my head.  
  
My father raised his wand and whispered the curse and all life left her once lively body. stormy eyes went blank.  
  
She looked so peaceful.  
  
I held onto her like I could save her if I wished hard enough. I cried, sobbed openly. It was an honest cry of anguish. Why should I have to cover it up?  
  
I took her to her father and he knew. He knew how and why. Understood that she would have rather died than never be allowed to see me again.  
  
So I went to school.  
  
That's where I am at the moment in the Slytherin Prefect dorm. Ha, they made me a prefect.  
  
I am not coping well with this, I know it. Crabbe and Goyle keep away from me now as I have told them to. Pansy keeps away from me. well everyone does and I like it like that.  
  
Hell, I haven't even got the energy to trade insults with the boy wonder and his idiot friends.well okay so Granger and Weasley. I still have the odd comment for them but everyone has noticed the change.  
  
Since I have lost Dee I don't care. Since I have lost her I haven't called Granger a Mudblood. It is redundant now.  
  
I lost Dee, a so-called mudblood, and I loved her.  
  
I always will.  
  
People often wonder why I push everyone away. They now see I have always done it. I have no real friends. It makes me laugh when they ask me why I push them away.  
  
I let one person into my life, I let one person love me, I let one person know all my deepest darkest secrets.  
  
That person is now dead.  
  
So, forgive me if I'm once bitten twice shy.  
  
Although, to coin a phrase from 'our film'  
  
"The greatest thing, you'll ever learn, is just to love, and be loved in return."  
  
I do agree wholeheartedly  
  
But I shall never chance another's life again.  
  
Draco Malfoy 


End file.
